


E.V.I.L B.O.Y.S

by rosesndsweetpeas



Category: Descendants (Disney Movies)
Genre: LGBTQ Themes, M/M, Truth, Truth Spells, jaylos, truth gummy
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-01-14
Updated: 2019-04-08
Packaged: 2019-10-10 09:47:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 8,898
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17423555
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rosesndsweetpeas/pseuds/rosesndsweetpeas
Summary: {Read the title like that Phineas and Ferb song} What would have happened if Carlos did take the truth gummy instead of Dude? What truths would he spill? When Carlos has no choice but to tell the truth and lets his big secret slip to Jane, how long can Carlos really keep it under wraps?





	1. Chapter 1

_"_ _So… this thing will make me say what I really feel to Jane?"_

_"_ _Yeah. I mean, this is a truth gummy so take it or leave it."_

_"_ _Perfect."_

_"_ _Hold on though… are you sure that you want to be taking this because this is going to make you say the truth, all the time, no matter what and the only reason that I'm asking is because I know that if I took this right now I would get myself sent back to the isle which it's not that that seems super unappealing but you know?"_

_"_ _Yeah, I'll take my chances I guess."_

* * *

Mal handed Carlos the gummy and watched as he put it in his mouth and chewed, his face contorting in disgust as he did.

"Ugh, that's gross." He said after swallowing the magical sweet.

"Well? Do you feel any different?" Mal asked.

"Not really. I guess I should just go find Jane and see if it worked?"

"Good idea."

"Thanks Mal, I owe you." Carlos said as he dashed towards to the door to leave and turned into the hallway.

"No… problem." Mal quietly said half to herself and half to Carlos as he left mid-sentence.

She wanted things to work out for Carlos the way he wanted them to, she really did, but she wished that he had taken her advice and maybe not taken the truth gummy. Although he had never said anything out right to her, she had her suspicions that his feelings for Jane weren't the truth and now that he'd taken it, his actual truth was about to come out. Not that Mal hadn't been waiting for that day pretty much since she'd met Carlos, she just didn't want to be the reason for something bad happening to him or his feelings getting hurt. She shook the thoughts from her head and tried not to think about it, she had her own truths to work through and needed to try and stay out of other people's dramas. She would just have to wait until later to see what would happen.

Meanwhile, Carlos was rushing around the school, trying to track down Jane whilst also trying to avoid everyone else so that he didn't spill any unwanted – yet true – opinions he had on his fellow classmates. He had to be careful now that he had no choice but to tell the truth. A thought that only briefly crossed his mind was how long exactly the gummy would last since he didn't even know if it had kicked in yet. It wasn't a case of if it would work, Carlos trusted Mal and her magic and knew what she was capable of, he just wanted to be wary in case it suddenly took affect and lasted indefinitely. Carlos wanted it to last long enough to tell Jane how he felt but also didn't want to be going around forever, spouting the absolute truth all the time.

He finally found Jane leaving the library, carrying a stack of papers and books in her arms and looking distant. Carlos ran over to her, bouncing like an excited puppy; a change of tune from only the day before when he could barely even get a word out to Jane.

"Jane hi!" he almost shouted in her face.

Jane jumped, startled at the sudden loud noise that had just distracted her from her train of though.

"Oh, hey Carlos, what's up?" she said once she had regained her composure.

"Uhh, I need to ask you something about cotillion."

"Oh yeah, great, what is it? Is it about decorations because I am so open to suggestions right now; I keep asking Mal what she thinks but she always seems busy. I mean with all the lady of the court stuff, anyone would be busy but this is kind of important too you know? I don't want to bug her though; I know she must be stressed."

"Uhh… yeah, right, actually I didn't come to talk about that. I came to ask you… if… wanted to go with me… but now that I think about it… the  _truth_ is…. I really want to ask Jay out." Carlos blurted out as if he no longer had control over what his mouth did, "And I took this truth gummy thing to make me tell you how I feel but I guess it kind of backfired. But if you think about it, I did just tell you how I feel so maybe it did its job after all. Wow, I needed to get all that off my chest, I feel like a weight has been lifted. I'm gunna go hide somewhere now and wait for this to wear off so that I don't somehow bump into Jay and tell him that I'm kind of in love with him. Oh God, did I just say that? I need to go, good luck with your decorations or whatever!"

He bolted off; leaving Jane in a state of shock and confusion that took her a minute to comprehend. She looked after the excitable boy with a puzzled expression on her face and wondered why he just spilled his guts to her like that and what in the world a truth gummy was. Eventually, she just shook her head in disbelief and wandered slowly on, trying to organise her thoughts enough to return to cotillion planning.

Carlos ran as quickly as he could out of sight from Jane and then stopped to think about what had just happened. This was not what he wanted, this is not what he planned and if he was honest, he did understand but it was definitely not what he was expecting. Of course he had thought about… feelings like this before but people on the Isle – especially his mother – weren't exactly so open and accepting when it came to emotions and affection especially that of others' and even more so if it wasn't exactly 'the norm'. But since he had lived in Auradon he had been desperate to be a new form of normal  _with_ feelings. Feelings towards Jane. He thought that was what he wanted or at least tried to make it what he wanted. He just wanted to be normal and somehow, even in this more accepting world, it was even more important to fit in and be accepted by everyone; he hadn't given himself a chance to really think about what he actually wanted. What he  _truly_ wanted. And now that the gummy was forcing him to tell not only other people the truth but also himself, he had to face his thoughts and feelings all at once and it was extremely overwhelming.

He sat down on the floor behind a bush, trimmed to resemble a frog and pulled his knees up to his chest, trying hard not to start hyperventilating. If Jane knew about his secret, then how long would it be before everyone else did to, including Jay, was all he could think about. He was sure that Jane wouldn't tell anyone and he was also pretty sure that what he had told her was so difficult to actually understand that she couldn't tell anyone even if she did want to. He took a deep breath and calmed himself down.

_'_ _Okay, I just have to avoid Jay until this wears off. When does this thing wear off? Right, I'll go find Mal then just find somewhere nice and secluded to lay low for however long it takes and then everything will be fine.'_ Carlos thought to himself, trying to provide some reassurance by getting a plan of action.

He took a deep, shaky breath and stood up from his ball on the floor and set off to find Mal. She was probably still in her room so that was the first place he decided to go. The only problem was, it was on the other side of the school and he would have to run and avoid Jay all that way. He could cut across the Tourney field as a shortcut but if practice had been moved there for the day, he would run into Jay. He could go the long way but prolonged exposure and going past the gym would also mean the possibility of running into Jay. Carlos weighed up his options and decided to go for the short cut. He was sure Jay had said something about the field condition not being right for practice last week so if that was still the case, it would be unlikely that the team would be there today. He hoped that was still the case.

Walking cautiously towards the Tourney field, Carlos planned out in his head what he would do if he really did run into Jay on his travels back to the dorms. He decided the best option in his condition was to run. Just run and don't look back. He would have gone with 'deny, deny, deny' but with the truth gummy working its magic, he wasn't sure that would be an option available to him. Carlos walked at a quickened pace but did not run as he thought it was better to be careful than fast in this situation and also wanted to save his energy for if he had to make an emergency break for it at any point. Okay, this was it; he approached the field, hiding out of sight with his back pressed against a wall on the edge of the grass. He took a couple of deep breaths before turning the corner and bolting without even taking a look to see if anyone was already there. It seemed like it was going to be a clear run and he would make it until someone from his left called out,

"Hey, Carlos!"

He froze. The voice sounded familiar but he was relieved that it was definitely not Jay. Part of him hated that he knew that because he didn't get the almost electric-like tingles through his body that he usually got whenever Jay said his name. Carlos slowly turned towards the voice and saw Chad running to catch up to him.

"Oh, hi Chad." Carlos said when he was close enough to be able to speak in a normal speaking voice.

If there was one person other than Jay that he did not want to run into that day, it was Chad; not that he didn't like him per se, just that there was a limit with Chad; only so much of him one person can take and with all the unwanted visits to his room recently, Carlos was pretty quickly reaching that point. He knew Chad was harmless but he also always found a way to get under people's skin and there were some thoughts that Carlos would rather keep to himself.

"What do you want?" Carlos prompted when Chad did nothing but give him a toothy grin.

"Oh, nothin'. I just wanted to say hi, you know, as  _buddies_  do." Chad answered him, charisma lacing every word that came out of his mouth.

Carlos rolled his eyes – he knew he wanted something from him – and sighed, "right. Well, hi." And began to walk away from him.

"Uhh, wait!" Chad called after him, stopping him in his tracks once again, "I actually wanted to ask for a favour. As a  _buddy_."

"What is it?"

"You know the sweet 3D printer you and Jay have in your dorm? Well I was wondering if I could swing by later and print something. It's for a… uh… business proposal I have for my father. I think with some props, he'd totally be open to the idea."

Carlos bit his tongue. That stupid 3D printer was the reason Chad had been paying so many visits, even when Jay and Carlos were not in their room and he was getting sick of it. He tried to stop himself from these words slipping out but it was no good and before he'd even registered saying anything at all, his frustration bubbled over and the words were out,

"Chad. You have been using that damn printer since we got it! You made a key for  _our_  room and just let yourself in whenever you please. I need my space; my  _own_  space away from all the prissy princes around here. Is it  _so_ much to ask that you don't just waltz into our room all the time?"

Chad stopped in his tracks, his smile slowly fading as he registered Carlos' annoyance.

"So… that's a no then?" He asked.

Carlos rolled his eyes and was about to say something else when his thought was cut off by the sound of a voice calling over to them from somewhere not too far behind Chad. The voice he had been trying to avoid and dreading the idea of hearing it. It was Jay. Even without being able to see around Chad's annoying, large head, he knew. He got the ever so familiar shivers that came along with Jay's low, calming voice and it took him aback for a second; way more than it usually did.

"Chad, man, come on!" He shouted, running towards the two boys off to the side of the field.

Carlos peaked around Chad and saw Jay coming towards them and felt like he was going to word-vomit all over him at any second. He could not let him get any closer and he most definitely could not let him speak to him.

"Oh, hey Carlos!" Jay called, closer now and approaching quickly with a dazzling smile on his face now.

Carlos did nothing but stare at him for all of a second before snapping out of it and springing back to life. Jay was now only a few strides away and Carlos knew he had to move at risk of letting something slip. He gave a panicked smile before bolting off into the direction he was headed in the first place, shouting something over his shoulder that vaguely resembled the words 'hi, gotta bye!" as he scampered off as fast as he could.

When Jay reached Chad's side less than a second later, he looked after his friend in confusion and asked Chad,

"What was that about?"

"No idea man, hey, can I stop by your room later?"

Jay slapped Chad playfully on his shoulder and shook his head in response before running back to the rest of his team to continue with practice. He was still confused as to why Carlos had scuttled away so quickly but shrugged it off just as fast, presuming it was because of Chad bothering him about the 3D printer.


	2. Chapter 2

Carlos burst into Mal's room and slammed the door shut behind him, leaning against it as if to keep someone out with his eyes squeezed shut in his state of stress, not even looking or announcing his presence.

"Umm, Carlos! I'm changing here, what the hell?" Mal yelled at him from across the room where she was clutching her dress up to her chest.

Carlos opened his eyes for a split second from his previous scrunched up in embarrassment expression "Oh my God, I'm sorry! I'm so sorry! I didn't see anything, promise, and you know… I can't lie!" Carlos turned around to face the door to give Mal some privacy before continuing with his blurted out speech, "I mean, it's not like I haven't seen it all before you know, we did kinda grow up together." He began to laugh nervously and wished his mouth would just stop working.

"Not the point! Why are you back so soon anyway? What happened?" Mal asked him, half concerned, half annoyed at his outburst into her room.

"Sorry" Carlos repeated, "I just… I went to Jane and I did tell her how I feel but I didn't tell her that I wanted to go out with her. Well I did but then I told her the truth and I couldn't help it and now I don't know what to do." He started to panic.

Mal slipped on her dress as quickly as she could before giving Carlos the all clear, "Okay, you can turn around now. Actually, could you just do this zipper up? All these damn dresses some with complicated contraptions of one kind or another." Mal asked as she walked over towards the boy who now looked worryingly pale.

Mal held her blonde hair back whilst Carlos zipped up the back of her dress, constricting her breathing just a enough to remind Mal of why she really hated the things. She then turned back around to face him to find out what on earth had gotten the shaken boy so flustered, "And breathe. Tell me what happened. What exactly did you say to Jane?"

"I told her…" He began, trying to keep the truth down despite knowing that the gummy wouldn't let that happen, "I told her that I loved Jay. And that I was going to ask her out but I actually want to ask him out and oh my God what have I done? I can't believe this, why did I do that? I didn't even tell myself all that and now I've just gone and told Jane everything? Oh my God... you know, this is your fault!"

"Me? I tried to warn you! God, I knew this would happen, I knew I shouldn't have let you go running off to Jane on your own." Mal started pacing in front of Carlos, not looking shocked but as if she was hatching a plan.

"Wait, you knew? You're not shocked? You don't think I'm weird?"

Mal stopped in her tracks and looked up at her friend who was now looking extremely close to either crying, passing out or both.

"Carlos, firstly sit down. Look, I didn't  _know_ but I suspected. Evie and I have kinda had bets on it for a while now. I have to let her make me over now." Mal shivered at the thought before regaining focus, "anyway, of course I don't think you're weird, why would I? I have Ben and Evie has Doug; I know what… love is now… I think." She shook her head slightly, "we're not on the Isle anymore Carlos, we are allowed to have feelings."

"Yeah, I know. It's just… Jay's my best friend. And I didn't even know I had these feelings until like ten minutes ago. I mean obviously I thought about stuff like that but not  _this_. You know?" Carlos sighed and put his head into his hands in defeat.

Mal looked down at her weary friend and sighed softly, worried for him. She placed a hand hesitantly on his shoulder in an attempt to comfort him.

"What did Jane say when you told her?" She asked.

"Not much. I kinda screamed at her and ran away before she had the chance to say anything. Oh God what if she tells people? What if she tells Jay? Jay  _cannot_ find out about this."

"Yeah, okay." Mal stood up from her spot on the bed next to Carlos and started pacing again, but slower this time as to not get her vulnerable friend more worked up, "okay, you stay here and lay low for a while. I'll go find Jane and see what she actually got from your little outburst and make sure she's not going to tell. If Evie comes back then, I don't know, make an excuse to leave. Or tell her; whatever you want to do, I really don't think Evie will say anything to anyone. The again, I really don't want that make over. Maybe try and keep it quiet for a little longer." Mal let out a small laugh at this which made Carlos smile a little before going back to his expression of turmoil. "But wherever you go, I'll meet you back here in 20 minutes, okay?"

Carlos nodded, standing up to move over to Mal's desk and taking a seat, collecting a book he could keep himself entertained with whilst she was gone. Mal slipped on her shoes and started towards the door,

"Oh, Mal?" Carlos called to her from his place sitting at the desk.

"Yeah?" She replied.

"How long do you think this will last? I really don't want to be walking around telling everyone the truth for the rest of my life."

"24 hours and it should've worn off. I'm not really sure what we're going to do with you for the next… 23 and a half hours to keep you away from people but we'll work something out. Right, I'll be back in 20." And with that, she left.

Carlos leant back in his chair and let out a frustrated, whiny growl. Why was he so dumb? Why did he think this was a good idea? Even if he did like Jane, the whole idea of a truth gummy seemed completely ridiculous right about now. He sat back up straight and actually began reading (well flicking through) the book he had picked up. It was something about fairy magic in the old days and as much as that would usually be something Carlos was interested in, he couldn't focus and was far too concerned about how long Mal had been and when she would come back.

* * *

Mal walked as quickly as she could without looking suspicious, in search of Jane. She knew that really, if she stood still for long enough, Jane and her endless list of questions about cotillion would gravitate towards her eventually without any effort on her part. Mal had developed an extremely low tolerance for cotillion since the whole thing seemed to be dependent on what she wanted and as much as she enjoyed Jane as a person; her questions were becoming increasingly tiresome. She shook the thoughts from her head and concentrated on where Jane could possibly be. She had already checked the library, the gardens and girls' bathroom and was quickly running out of places to look. Mal stopped for a moment to think, pouting a little and looking around at potential places Jane could be. When she was about to start moving again, she spotted Lonnie just ahead and decided that she was her best bet to finding Jane.

"Hey, Lonnie, wait up a sec!" Mal called in Lonnie's direction.

Lonnie turned to look at Mal and waved a little, walking towards her to meet in the middle.

"Hey, Mal, what's up?" Lonnie said in her overly chipper voice.

"I was just looking for Jane, have you seen her?"

"Not since this morning. Why?"

"I uh… just have to talk to her about… cotillion! Yeah, I know she's wanted decisions from me and I just got a free moment, you know, busy, busy, busy!" Mal said, trying to sound equally as chipper as to not be suspicious.

"Well I'm headed to the gym right now and I know some of the girls go there sometimes to watch the boys practice. You could try there?" Lonnie offered.

"Yeah, perfect, let's go! No time to waste! Like I said, busy, busy, busy!" Mal said, urging Lonnie forwards in the direction of the gym.

Mal quickened her pace, looking at the watch on Lonnie's wrist ever so often to make sure she wasn't leaving Carlos for too long. She had five more minutes until her twenty was up and she didn't want to be AWOL for too much longer. The two girls entered the gym but as Mal went to go upstairs, Lonnie stopped her,

"Um, I'm gonna go this way, I'll catch up with you later." She told Mal who was in too much of a rush to really register what was going on with Lonnie.

Mal reached the top of the stairs in a hurry and saw Jane right in front of her. She stopped for a second to catch her breath from all the brisk walking and stair running before walking over to the small crowd of girls next to the banisters.

"Jane, hi!" Mal almost shouted.

For the second time that day, Jane jumped in shock at one of the villain kids shouting her name in her face. It was almost becoming routine.

"Oh hey, Mal, what's up?" Jane said; trying to shrug off the near heart attack feeling Mal had just induced.

"Can I talk to you for a sec? Like in private?" Mal asked, eyeing the other girls in the group slightly.

Jane nodded and Mal ushered her over to the side where they would be out of earshot of anyone trying to eavesdrop.

"Did Carlos come and speak to you earlier?" Mal asked, trying to seem nonchalant.

"Oh. Yeah, he was being super weird though. Why do you ask?" Jane said.

"Yeah he's been a little off today, I just wonder if he might have said anything to you about what might be wrong?"

In the background, the two girls could vaguely hear the commotion from the boys practicing below them and Chad's big mouth speaking up about something he didn't agree with and arguing with someone. This was nothing new but Mal's mind wandered a little to think back to where Lonnie left her at the bottom of the stairs but didn't let herself dwell on it, she was on a mission. However, she could tell that Jane  _was_  getting distracted by this and snapped her fingers in front of her distant expression.

Jane jumped a little before getting back to her train of thought, "Umm well he was kinda rambling and speaking  _way_  too fast for me to get much, and anyway, my mind's complete cotillion mush right now. I think he said something about Jay… you don't think they've fallen out do you? Maybe that's what's wrong with him. That would be  _so_ sad; they're like, the best of friends. I also got something about him telling me the truth. But whatever that was, I didn't get a lot of it." Jane said, speaking in various tones of thoughtfulness and enthusiasm.

Mal nodded slowly for a second before replying,

"Right. Yeah maybe it's something to do with Jay, I haven't seen him today. Are you sure you didn't get anything he said about him?" she said, trying to prise something else out of Jane just in case.

"Not that I can remember… maybe you should go talk to Jay, I think practice will be over soon. By the sounds of it, it might already be done. I'll let you know if I remember anything though. With all this cotillion planning going on, I haven't had much luck remembering anything these last few weeks. Hey, speaking of which, do you know when you have a minute that we can talk about stuff? I really need your decision on some of the decorations."

Mal held back a tremendous sigh and instead smiled and said,

"Well, would you look at that? I have to run but I'll be sure to catch up with you later for cotillion planning. Maybe you could ask Ben's opinion for some things in the meantime. Good luck though."

Before Jane could say anything else, Mal dashed towards the stairs and exit, both trying to avoid Jane's cotillion babble and get back to Carlos who was probably by now having a major panic attack back in her dorm. She ran now across the campus, glad for Carlos that Jane didn't remember what he said and that he had nothing to worry about. She still had the issue of trying to keep Carlos out of everyone's way for the next 23 hours to think about but she decided to tackle one obstacle at a time and for now, her friend was safe.

* * *

Jane went to tell Mal thanks and ask her another quick question about the position of tables and centrepieces but she disappeared before she could even get out 'tha'. That left Jane at the top of the stairs to think. She really did hope that Jay and Carlos were okay and she worried about what could be wrong with Carlos and why he was acting to strange earlier. So she thought. She tried to remember what exactly Carlos had said to her about Jay so that she could maybe shed some light on the whole situation. She retraced her mental processes: she was walking out of the library, thinking about the colour order of the streamers they'd ordered for cotillion and trying to picture the different combinations in her head. Then she remembered that she had some math homework due the next day and was trying to fit some time into her schedule she could do it. That's when Carlos sprung on her; right between lunch and fourth period, metaphorically of course. She replayed what she could remember of the conversation that came after that and the bits she could actually decipher from his quick speech.

That's when she remembered. She realised what he had said to her that made him run off in such a hurry. Jane's eyes widened in shock before her brows knitted together in slight confusion. But she was sure. He couldn't have said anything else. Carlos said he was in love with Jay.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I always forget to put disclaimers on fics sooo just here to say that I don't own Descendants, it would be gayer if I did. Also, hope you guys are liking this,, I have also posted it on fanfic.net and I don't know if that's allowed or whatever but that's what I'm doing because I feel like AO3 is better and I need to get used to it. So yah, leave me some love if you like this, thank you for reading and leaving kudos etc so far!! :)


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N - I don't own the Descendents (it'd be a lot gayer if I did). Also, I most likely won't stick to the storyline of the second film much if at all even though this is set in that time because firstly I feel like this would change things and also I would only be regurgitating the plot of the film if I did so yah, hi and hope you enjoy and sorry if it's a little messy in places, I tend to write at 3 in the morning and get distracted a lot :)

While Mal was gone, Carlos tried to keep his mind off of the utter mess his day had turned into by flicking through the book, looking at some of Evie's dress designs and building a small structure out of the pens that were lying haphazardly on the desk in front of him. He tried to keep his mind off of how long Mal had been but couldn't help but keep checking on the small alarm clock on her bedside table. Much to Carlos' dismay, she'd only been gone for ten minutes. He sighed and flopped down on her bed, picking up the old magic book again in another attempt to actually read it. Eventually, and he wasn't sure how long it actually took him, Carlos must have drifted off because when he woke up, he was greeted by Evie's face close to his, whispering, "Caaaarloooss?" in his ear.

Once he fully came round, Carlos jumped out of his skin and tumbled off the bed with a thud. Evie's chirpy laughter filled the room whilst Carlos sat on the floor, bewildered and beginning to panic again at the arrival of another person he could possibly tell the truth to.

"Where's Mal?" Evie asked as she took her bag off and hung it on her bedpost.

Carlos stood up quickly and rubbed the back of his neck, nervously.

"She uhh… I don't know exactly, she went out to look for… someone. About… 25 minutes ago."

Yeah, that worked. It wasn't the whole truth but it wasn't a lie either. Carlos was trying very hard to bend the truth ever so slightly so that it was still technically the truth but not enough that Evie would know everything that was going on. He was also trying not to show the slight annoyance in his voice as he said 25, realising that Mal was five minutes late.

"Oh. Do you know who?" Evie asked again cheerfully.

"Yes." Carlos said bluntly but truthfully.

"Well who was it then?"

"Jane." Before Evie could ask why or any more questions he decided to make a run for it, "okay well I gotta go, homework to do, videogames to play, all that. I'll see you later!" Carlos said in a raised voice. He did have homework he needed to do, that was the truth; Evie just didn't need to know that he wasn't planning on doing any of it, especially right at that moment.

He started to make a dash for the door but Evie stopped him in his tracks and stood in his path. She squinted her eyes at him questioningly before saying,

"You're being weird."

"Am I?" Carlos asked, not being able to deny what he knew was the truth.

"Yes. Yes you are. Why are you being weird?"

"Why are you being weird?"

"Why are you avoiding the question?"

"Why are you asking so many questions?"

"Because Carlos, I'm worried about you!" Evie said, exasperated.

"Well don't be. I really need to go though."

There was a moment of shared silence between the two before Evie sighed and moved out of Carlos' way. She knew that it wouldn't take long for him to crack and tell her what she wanted to know anyway, he would tell her when he was ready and it was no use arguing with him when she was far too busy with sorting the whole school's cotillion outfits out.

"Fine, go. But I will talk to you later." She said to him.

Carlos nodded and rushed out of the room, shutting the door behind him and taking a shaky, deep breath. He hated lying to Evie – not literally of course because he couldn't do that anymore – and keeping things from her but he wasn't ready to tell her everything yet. Even though he knew she would be supportive, he had spilled his guts to far too many people in a far too short space of time and couldn't deal with telling another person at the moment. He was about to go looking for Mal when he heard her out of breath voice calling him from down the hallway.

"Carlos! God I am not running anymore. Sorry I'm late, it was a bit-." Mal was cut off by Carlos shushing her aggressively.

"Evie's in there, shh!" He said at a loud whisper as he pointed at the closed door next to him.

Evie, from inside, heard the commotion of her friends on the outside and quietly moved over to the door to try and listen in. She placed her ear against the door and listened in as best she could.

"What took you so long?" Carlos whispered harshly.

"Sorry, it just took longer than I thought it would to find her." Mal said quietly.

"Well did you? Did you talk to her?"

"Yeah, I did. She said that she didn't really remember anything you said and you didn't really make a lot of sense so I think we're good. She couldn't tell anyone even if she wanted to."

Carlos sighed in relief at hearing this,

"Good. Thanks Mal, I owe you."

Mal smiled a little at Carlos and placed her hand reassuringly on his shoulder.

Evie heard the whole exchange and was becoming increasingly suspicious of her two best friends and what they could possibly be trying to hide from her. She opened the door abruptly but asked them cheerfully as to not alert them to her suspicions,

"What are you two whispering about out here? Not plotting anything evil are you?"

Mal and Carlos both jumped at the sound of the door opening and Evie's bright voice and turned to look at her. Carlos glanced at Mal with a worried expression, knowing that he couldn't lie to her even if it was just a rhetorical question. Mal jumped immediately jumped in to save him,

"Hey, E." She responded cheerfully, trying to play off whatever suspicions Evie may have about the two, "how's the dress alterations going?"

Mal walked past Evie into her room and sat down on her bed, facing the door. She raised an eyebrow at Carlos and jolted her head slightly to indicate that he should come in. Evie, still at the door, continued to look intently at both of them as Carlos moved slowly and almost carefully into the room and took a seat back at the desk. She was now sure that something big was up but decided to act as normally as she could in the hopes they would come round on their own. She closed the door behind Carlos and regained her composure.

"They're going well; everyone at that ball is going to look just fabulous! Ooo that reminds me actually, I need to do your final, final fitting, I made some slight alterations that I think will look even better than before!" Evie chimed.

Mal rolled her eyes and groaned at the thought of yet another dress fitting and another cotillion related task.

"More alterations? I thought we were all done?" She asked her friend who had her hands clasped together at her chest and an excited gleam in her eyes; she could never say no to that face.

All Evie had to do was hold the face and maybe drop her expression a little and Mal, much like the rest of her friends, was putty in her hands.

"Fine. But can we do it after school tomorrow? I'm exhausted and I have to meet up with Ben at some point and then learn all this cotillion cr-." Mal started.

"Yes, I know I've heard this a million times, that's fine we'll do it tomorrow." Evie cut her off.

Carlos sat there in silence, shaking his leg throughout this whole exchange, getting continually more nervous that Evie was about to hit him with another barrage of questions that he wouldn't be able to avoid.

"Anyway, why did you go and see Jane all of a sudden? I thought you were avoiding her." Evie asked Mal as she pulled out her rail of half-finished and altered dresses.

Carlos' eyes widened and his leg shaking increased in his nervous state.

"Oh, yeah I was but I promised her if I had a moment I'd speak to her about streamers or something and I had a moment so I went and saw her, I didn't want her to have a full on meltdown which is the way it was heading." Mal covered.

Carlos envied how easy it was for her to lie now that he couldn't. Evie glanced at Carlos who immediately stopped shaking his leg and smiled at her unconvincingly. Mal also looked at Carlos with an unimpressed expression that told him to either act cool or leave and at that moment, only the latter of those options seemed like a possibility.

Carlos stood up abruptly,

"Well, I have to get going, Dude's probably missing me. I'll see you guys later." He said as he walked quickly towards the door and left.

He hadn't thought much about where he was going to go but he walked out of the room and didn't stop. He weighed up his options in his mind; tourney practice was over so Jay could be anywhere from the cafeteria to their room to doing something with the team which meant it was just a lucky draw where he went that he wouldn't run into him. Eventually Carlos decided that the library was probably his best bet; he could hide away in a corner and take a nap or maybe even do some of the homework he had used as an excuse earlier. He had only just reached the door when someone called him from somewhere behind. Carlos froze before slowly turning around to see a smiling Jane approaching him.

"Oh. Hi Jane. About earlier, sorry if I sounded a little crazy." Carlos said, trying to give the most believable smile of confidence he could.

"No, not at all, it's totally fine. Look I mean, I'd be a little crazy if I was in love with my best friend too." She probed to see if there would be a reaction, if she had actually heard him right before.

"Yeah…" Carlos laughed a little, awkwardly before what Jane said clicked in his mind and he snapped back into defence mode, "wait what? I thought that you didn't- Mal said that you couldn't-… oh my god." He threw his hands up to his face and covered his eyes, turning away from Jane again.

"Carlos?" She asked carefully, "are you okay? I know I told Mal I didn't remember anything but then when she left I got worried that you and Jay weren't friends anymore and I started really thinking about what you said and I remembered. But don't worry, I didn't tell her and I promise I won't tell anyone else. I think it's kind of… y'know, sweet, actually."

Carlos took a deep breath to steady himself and stood up straight, trying to get back some of his ever decreasing dignity, but he didn't turn back around. He had teared up slightly in the moment of pure embarrassment and didn't want to see the look of pity he knew Jane had on her face.

At the lack of response, Jane took a step towards Carlos and placed a tentative hand on his lower back. She could feel how deep his breathing was as his body moved slightly with each breath and although she couldn't see his face, she was fairly certain that he was trying not to cry. Instead of speaking she moved her thumb lightly to try and provide some reassurance and comfort. Comforting people wasn't really Jane's forte; she just tended to either ramble a lot or not know what to say at all so she stuck with just gently rubbing Carlos' back until he was ready to say something she could work with. He just sighed. Jane could maybe try to work with that,

"Carlos. It's fine, really, really fine. I told you, I won't tell anyone and you don't have to tell anyone either. Not if you don't want to and I mea-" She was cut off by Carlos' lips crashing into hers.

If her mouth wasn't clamped together and she wasn't frozen in shock, Jane could have screamed at how suddenly the action of Carlos turning around, placing his hands on either side of her face and pressed his lips against hers had happened and how much it startled her. She didn't have much time to think about that though as the kiss ended as quickly as it had begun and Carlos looked as white as a sheet, almost as shocked as she was,

"I am so sorry. I'm so sorry." He mumbled before quickly walking past and away from Jane at an almost jog, leaving her, once again, looking at his back in shock and confusion.

Jane lightly placed her fingers over her lips and shook her head; she understood that Carlos was probably having a hard time but why did he have to do this to her? She very rarely got angry at people and least of all, Carlos but this was starting to get on her last nerve. She let out an aggravated sigh and walked off, quietly seething.

While Jane was having her semi-meltdown by the library, Carlos was having his own on his way back to Mal's room. He no longer cared if Evie was in there or if she knew or not, he had really messed up and he knew it. He just thought if he kissed Jane then maybe he could like her like he thought he did and this whole mess could be solved and his feelings for Jay could be put to rest. He didn't mean to actually kiss her but she was talking so much and being nice and he was upset and panicking and getting desperate to fix it all. But when he did kiss her, like he'd imagined he wanted to do for weeks, he felt nothing. Or at least nothing like how he felt when he so much as made eye contact with Jay or heard him say his name and that thought made him panic even more. He felt bad for what he'd done and even worse for just running off and leaving Jane like that but he didn't know how he could even start to explain himself to her and he was as shocked at himself as she must have been at him.

Carlos got to Mal's room and thought about just walking in as he did before but then thought better of it after what he walked in on last time. So he knocked. And he waited. For the whole three seconds it took Mal to come to the door and open it, he had begun to freak out again and this time when his eyes teared up, the tears threatened to spill over his lids and possibly never stop. Thank God it only took three seconds for Mal to open the door.

"Carlos, you're back. What's wrong?" She asked, noticing his glazed over eyes.

Carlos didn't respond and instead just walked straight past her to sit on the bed, eyes still glazed over and unresponsive.

"I kissed Jane." He mumbled under his breath.

"You what?" Mal asked, closing the door and stepping forward to try and hear him better.

"I kissed Jane." Carlos said only fractionally louder.

Mal craned her neck towards him, "Carlos, I can't hear you when you mumble like that; what's wrong?"

Carlos stood up aggressively quickly, causing Mal to straighten up in order to get out of his way,

"I kissed. Jane!" He shouted, starting to pace rapidly in front of Mal.

She stared at the panicking boy in shock and followed his movements with her eyes but didn't say anything. Instead, when she had gotten over the shock as best she could, she folded her arms across her chest and turned her shock into disapproval.

"And why did you do that? This is a mess enough as is it Carlos!" She asked in a raised voice.

"I know it's a mess! And I don't know why I kissed her!" Carlos stopped pacing, "It's what I wanted a couple of hours ago, I mean I thought it was what I wanted and I just thought that if I kissed her, I would like her for real and I could be normal and never have to breathe a word of this big messy… mess to anyone else ever again."

"And how is that working out?"

"Well obviously it's not, is it?! Now I feel ten times worse and guilty and confused and Jane probably hates me and I know Evie isn't exactly my number one fan either right now and I'm just messing everything up. Where is Evie anyway?" Carlos babbled out in a slightly higher pitch than usual.

"We may have had a little teeny tiny argument when I wouldn't tell her what was wrong with you and she went to find Doug."

"Great!" Carlos threw his hand in the air dramatically, "another thing I've messed up!" He slumped back on to the bed and Mal sat next to him.

"No, E will get over it; she'd do the same thing if she was in my position. Look this may be a little… up in the air right now but it will be fine, I promise. And hey, in like 20 more hours, the truth potion's effects will be gone and everything can go back to normal!"

"If the effects wearing off causes memory loss to everyone I've spoken to today then yeah, it can go back to normal but I don't think that's how it works."

Carlos looked over at Mal and burst into tears. Much to his disgust, he began to sob into his hands – he never cried and he didn't understand why he was letting himself cry now. Mal didn't know how to deal with crying people and especially not Carlos. She lent away from him briefly before snapping out of it and putting her arm around her broken friend, giving him an awkward side hug. Carlos lent into Mal a little and did surprisingly find comfort in Mal's rigid posture and half-hearted hug. She was trying her best.

"Talk to Jane. Maybe not right now, it's probably best to talk to her tomorrow. But talk to her." She said softly.

"Because that went so well before." Carlos replied sarcastically with a sniff.

"Well as long as you don't kiss her again, it can't go worse than that!"

Carlos spluttered out some-what of a laugh.

"And if it doesn't work, I still have my mother's spell book, I'm sure I can work up a memory spell!" Mal half joked, half said seriously.

"No. Please no more magic. Magic got me in to this mess in the first place."

Mal put her hands up defensively, "okay, fine, no magic."

Carlos sniffed again and wiped his damp eyes on his sleeve.

"Thanks Mal. I really do owe you."

"Don't worry about it, I did kinda cause all this." Carlos just gave her a weak smile, "this is when you say 'no Mal, don't be silly, you didn't cause this!'"

They both laughed and Mal sighed in relief that he wasn't crying anymore.

"Right, I need to go meet Ben so feel free to hang here for a while or whatever. Come find me if you need anything, I think I'll be around; if not, talk to Evie, she'll understand and probably be way better at moral support than I am and I'm over the makeover threat now." Mal laughed.

Carlos smiled and nodded and made himself at home on her bed, kicking his shoes off and laying back against the head board. He would try and relax but he was so past relaxed at this point that that was unlikely.

Mal said goodbye and left, a little concerned that she was leaving Carlos behind but also slightly happy that she was getting away from the whole headache that was Carlos' love life which didn't exist a couple of hours ago… and also a bit bad for feeling that way about one of her best friends. She straightened out her dress and walked down the hall, determined to clear her head before she saw Ben, they were in desperate need of some alone time without all the stress of her problems.

She almost achieved her ideal clarity when she reached the foyer of the dorm building when it was completely shattered again by someone from above calling her name. She looked up to see Jay hanging over the balcony above her and sighed so deeply she was worried a lung was going to full out of her mouth. He ran down the stairs to meet her, as energetic as ever.

"Hey, have you seen Carlos? He was being kind of weird this morning and I haven't seen him since." He asked her.

Mal considered for a split second telling him where he was, if only to get the problem off of her back by forcing the two to talk but then thought better of it and instead said,

"Nope. Haven't seen him. Maybe try the library?" She replied hurriedly and tried to walk away.

Jay stopped her and asked,

"Why would he be in the library?" He scoffed.

Mal was getting irritated and she did not want to take that into her date so she may have let rip a little tiny bit.

"I don't know! It was just a suggestion! Look somewhere else, I don't care, I really have to go! Why can't you all sort out your own problems for once, GOD!"

She then did walk off and Jay knew not to stop her. He chuckled inwardly to himself a little and got back to his Carlos hunt. Maybe he would check the library. He didn't seem to be having any luck anywhere else.

Jay took a stroll over to the library and looked around but there was no sign of Carlos anywhere, just as he suspected. He wandered around a little until he got bored and hungry so decided to go and get something to eat, Carlos would turn up eventually. On his way though, he saw Jane across the courtyard, yelling something into her phone. He knew Carlos had a thing for her and thought that maybe she would know where he was.

"Hey, Jane!" He called.

Jane hung up the phone and tried to speed walk away before Jay could catch up to her but was unsuccessful as Jay blocked her path.

"Hi Jay. What's up?" She asked, nervously.

"Have you seen Carlos? He was acting w-"

"Weird yeah, believe me, I know." Jane cut him off.

Jay looked at the small girl in front of him questioningly and asked,

"Right… so have you seen him or not?"

"No. I haven't. Not since he kissed me and ran away." Jane tried to slip past him and do her own running away but Jay moved to block her.

"He did what? Way to go, Carlos! Why'd he run away though?"

"I don't think I was the one he wanted to be kissing." She tried to move past once more but was again blocked, Jay sticking with her.

"What do you mean?"

"You'll have to talk to him about that, I don't want to get in the middle of this, tell him to sort his own problems out!" Jane snapped and this time, Jay let her pass him by.

'What is up with all these girls biting my head off today?' Jay thought to himself. That was the second time someone said people should sort their own problems and he had no clue what problems they were all talking about; all he wanted was to find his friend, figure out what his problem was and then beat him at a videogame of his choosing – it was always more satisfying when Carlos picked the game Jay could destroy him at. Jay sighed and went back to his goal of getting some food. Food first, everything else later.


End file.
